Eleven graduates who have made outstanding professional contributions will be honored by their BYU colleges during Homecoming 2003. Each will deliver an address to his or her college.
Biology and Agriculture
Spencer R. Mortensen, ’92, serves as ecological toxicologist and risk assessor for Syngenta Crop Protection. He has been a research scientist for American Cyanamid and Dow AgroSciences. He received the Best Research Presentation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research from the Society of Toxicology in 1997, and in 1999 he received the Outstanding Contribution to the Science Literature Award from Dow AgroSciences.
David O. McKay School of Education
After teaching elementary school for six years, Nedra M. Call, ’93, took a position in the Nebo School District office developing and assessing yearly outcomes. She later became curriculum director for the district. In coordination with the BYU public school partnership, Call works to ensure that new and continuing teachers receive the best possible training.
Engineering and Technology
A veteran of more than 20 years in the technology industry, James J. Abrams, ’78, is a member of three advisory councils at BYU and sponsors a BYU professorship. He previously worked for Hewlett-Packard, Silicon Graphics, and Apple Computer and was a vice president at Cisco Systems.
Family, Home, and Social Sciences
Terry R. Seamons, ’64, MS ’66, PhD ’72, has worked for RHR International since 1974, where he is vice president and managing director. He has taught classes at Northern Arizona University and BYU and is coordinator of psychologists for Provo City School District.
Fine Arts and Communications
Reed P. Smoot, ’69, has been director of photography for Walt Disney Pictures and Sony Pictures and has photographed more than 50 films for the Church of Jesus Christ. He received the Utah Governor’s Mansion Artist Award and the Kodak Vision Award and was recently inducted into the American Society of Cinematographers. Smoot was one of five cinematographers selected to film the 1998 Nagano Olympic Winter Games for a large-format production.
Health and Human Performance
C. Bradford Allen, ’78, has worked for the Boy Scouts of America for 26 years, serving as scout executive, national director of relationships with the Church of Jesus Christ, area director, and assistant regional director. He has received the Outstanding Young Men in America Award and Outstanding Youth Leadership Professional Award.
Humanities
Awarded several national prizes for his translations and classical studies, Minhua Chen, ’88, is a researcher, professor, and director of central European and Greek-Roman studies at the University of Shanghai. In 2001 he was named Outstanding Scholar in the Studies of Foreign Literature and was given an award for his bookPlato’s Theories on Poetry and the Fine Arts.
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Jay S. Bybee, ’77, is judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. After graduation he worked for the Department of Justice before serving as associate counsel to the president of the United States. He has taught law at Louisiana State University and the University of Nevada.
Marriott School of Management
Gary P. Williams, ’73, is the associate director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and a teaching professor in the Marriott School of Management. He was formerly the president and CEO of Sterling Wentworth Corp./SunGard Expert Solutions. Williams is a member of the Utah Angels, a private investment group.
Nursing
Carol Wheeler Brumfield, ’56, was a clinical instructor of nursing at BYU for 16 years and has worked as a staff nurse at a Red Cross blood bank and in labor and delivery, pediatrics, and neonatal intensive care. She was a supervisor at a Red Cross blood bank, educational director at Marion County Hospital in Mississippi, and director of women’s and children’s services for Mountain View Hospital in Payson, Utah.
Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Berthold W. Weinstein, ’71, is the acting associate director of biology and biotechnology research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is also the leader of the biological foundations area for the Department of Energy’s Chemical and Biological National Security Program, and he served on the science council for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nonproliferation and National Security.
